The City - Taking the Next Step

One of the things that I hear pretty frequently from people who first walk through the doors of Mars Hill is that they’re not really sure how they’re supposed to get connected. They might have a desire to serve on a particular team or join a community group, but they’re not sure who to talk to. And with how quickly ministries grow and change, it’s tough to keep track of that information in any sort of centrally managed repository (we’re long past the days where a spreadsheet, even online, could be accurate).

Of course, the ideal scenario would be to give the various info desks and community group desks all the information they need to be able to connect those dots for the newcomer standing in front of them at the desk. So why not build an environment where that can take place?

As I mentioned in the design principle discussion, Administration at the Edge and Content Finds its Target are key principles for The City. In this scenario then, The City would be home to all the Service Groups at Mars Hill; it would be a place for ministry team leads to surface their needs (”we need two more greeter leads”, “we need one more for the beverage ministry”, that’s the Administration at the Edge piece) and for the helpful people that serve on Sundays to connect the interested volunteer to the right ministry (Content Finds its Target, ie. no dropped communications).

The experience for the Info Desk volunteer would change to have a prioritized list of serving needs that they could use in their dialog with the potential volunteer to help match them to the right area of service. Likewise, the experience for the potential volunteer changes to a personal interaction aimed at connecting them into their area of gifting, and then allowing The City to carry the administrative overhead of making sure that they get a timely response from the service lead. No email lists, out of date spreadsheets, or massive central effort to keep up to date with all the happenings…rather, every info desk would be a portal to the needs of every campus.

This same pairing system would be used to help people find a community group to participate in. The community group desk would have The City at their disposal to look for a group that matches the physical locale of the interested attender and, with a click of the proverbial button, forge a digital bond between the community group leader and the potential attender (emailing confirmation as appropriate). With the approval of the group leader, directions could be sent, along with their own “welcome to our group” message, without having to surface phone numbers or addresses in any way.

What’s the goal? At the end of the day we want to enable everyone to know what is the next step in their walk with Jesus. If it’s getting connected as a Member, then it should be trivial to find out how the Membership process works and to kick it off without having to spend time researching. If it’s getting involved in a Community Group, then they should be likewise drawn into the community through the “neighborhood” from my last posting, as well as a highly equipped community group desk system that plugs them into community without barriers getting in the way.

So in this way, The City is designed to be developmental.